{Update 4 – 12 April 2017}
This posting brings together the most important documents circulating at this stage.
First, the minutes with the statements by UN Security Council (UNSC) members and debate on 28 February, during which a resolution to sanction certain Syrian individuals deemed responsible for the earlier CW attacks was vetoed, can be downloaded here.
On 5 April, the UNSC held an emergency debate after the chemical weapon attack against Khan Sheikhoun, Idlib Province, Syria that killed scores of civilians – the death toll is now approaching 100 – and hundreds of other casualties.
In a statement also issued on 5 April, the WHO gave credence to the hypothesis that the agent or one of the agents used might have been sarin:
The likelihood of exposure to a chemical attack is amplified by an apparent lack of external injuries reported in cases showing a rapid onset of similar symptoms, including acute respiratory distress as the main cause of death. Some cases appear to show additional signs consistent with exposure to organophosphorus chemicals, a category of chemicals that includes nerve agents.
The full document is available from the WHO website.
The UNSC emergency session began with a report by Mr Kim Won-soo, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) has published his statement.
A detailed summary of the session presentations and discussion is available here.
At present, Russia, on the one hand, and France, United Kingdom and the United States, on the other hand, have started circulating draft texts for resolutions.
And he made the early French, UK and US draft available via the web.
A debate and vote on these draft resolutions was expected in the evening of 6 April (EST), but has been cancelled.
Also on 6 April the European Union released a statement denouncing the chemical attack, but supporting ‘the efforts of the OPCW in Syria with regard to the investigation of the use of chemical weapons and [considering] that such efforts have to be continued in the future by the international community‘.
The UN Security Council is meeting on 7 April to discuss the US airstrike against Syria. A briefing ahead of the meeting updates the status of the negotiations on a resolution condemning Syria’s use of chemical weapons.
{Update}revised French, UK and US draft resolution on his blog.
{Update} Meanwhile the 4-page White House report on the chemical weapon attack against Khan Sheikhoun is also available.
More to follow as they become available.
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Syria Links – April 7, 2017 |
[…] More links – to documents on the chemical weapons attack. Jean Pascal Zanders is an expert in chemical weapons and related policy. He is on Twitter and updates his blog regularaly. […]